Arreola on Ruiz-‘All the Pressure Is on Him’

Heavyweight Chris Arreola is preparing for his in-ring return against former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. which is now reportedly taking place on pay-per-view on May 1st. The date was originally April 24, but the official announcement has the updated date of the fight to May from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

Arreola, however, speaking with ES News, stated that he knows that the pressure will be on the Ruiz in the battle of Mexican-American heavyweights.

“I’m very excited about the fight with another Mexican. He became the first Mexican heavyweight champion. He shocked the world. But all the pressure is on him and not on me; he wants to come back, so everyone expects him to do something impressive. Although, as I said, I’m trying to get to where he is,” Arreola said in an interview with ES News.

Arreola is right in that regard that the pressure is on Ruiz, who is looking to rebound from the loss he suffered at the hands of Anthony Joshua. In that fight, he came in out of shape and since then switched trainers to Eddy Reynoso and has been seen losing his dad-bod on Instagram and in workout videos.

Arreola was last in action in a shootout loss against Adam Kownacki back in 2019. In that contest, both men threw for over 1,000 punches over the course of 12 rounds, and Arreola ended up fighting thru a broken left hand from the fifth round onward.

For the former three-time title challenger, he’s embracing the chance to make a name for himself against Ruiz.

“You know this is a great opportunity for me, a great opportunity for the Mexican community, for boxing fans,” Arreola stated.

We’ve written about our moans and groans about this being on pay-per-view, but as you may have expected, it’s still sitting in the complaints box over at Premier Boxing Champions. However, I’d like to point out that he doesn’t expect analyst  Joe Goosen to be on the call for the main event as he is the trainer for Arreola. In his last contest that aired on Fox, they had Deontay Wilder on the call. It would be interesting if they have him back out there for this one.

Also with the official announcement, the price of the pay-per-view is $49.95.